the achievement of great, bittersweet passages (the opening scene of suicide, the sadly believable PC inanity of the collective's manifesto discussion, a narrative gamble on genital art that i think pays off) gets marred by some badly contrived episodes (the speech at the AA meeting, the immolation). But. this traditionally structured and styled novel (cheever and scott fitzgerald are named-checked) also contains difficult truths about both the writing life and asian america -- especially the two in combination -- that are woefully un(der)represented in the contemporary letters of these our disunited states.